“We should all enter into a conversation humbly, acknowledging that we have something to learn,” Guterl said. “If any of us are just there to dish out enlightenment, we aren’t doing the ‘discovery’ or the ‘dialogue’ parts as effectively as we should.”

The Oct. 27 event will feature Austen, a George Polk Award-winning journalist and author of acclaimed books including “Correction: Parole, Prison and the Possibility of Change” and “High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing,” and Muhammad, a professor of African American studies and public affairs at Princeton University, a contributor to the 1619 Project, and the author of “The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime and the Making of Modern Urban America.”

Among their collaborations, Austen and Muhammad, who grew up together on the South Side of Chicago in the 1970s and ’80s, co-hosted a podcast, “Some of My Best Friends Are…,” which featured their unfiltered conversations about growing up together and navigating divisions and race in America.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion will continue the conversation series in Brown’s Spring 2026 semester with a March 30 discussion between award-winning authors Edwidge Danticat and Lauren Groff, titled “Banned Books and Troublesome Texts;” and on April 16 with a conversation between human rights attorney and director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University Jameel Jaffer and constitutional law scholar Genevieve Lakier, who will speak about “Free Speech in Challenging Times.”

The events are among myriad opportunities and events at Brown for students, faculty and staff to engage in meaningful conversations across a wide range of perspectives and strengthen skills in areas like listening and conflict resolution.

Guterl, an academic leader and scholar who is a professor of Africana studies and American studies at Brown, said that equipping students to engage across differences is critically important. It requires knowledge-building, skill-building and community-building — all of which Discovery Through Dialogue aims to support — and the conversation series is designed to advance these goals, he said.

“I encourage students and community members to be courageous, but also be mindful and respectful,” Guterl said. “Expect to make mistakes and expect that every word is consequential. Recognize that power makes the ground uneven... So, too, does anger.”